Guys! IT’S HERE! The Diseased Ones, Book 1 in The Hollis Timewire series by Danielle Harrington is now out. I want to thank Danielle for letting me be apart of her blog tour to promote her book. As apart of her blog tour to promote her book, I am doing a book review, explaining what I liked, what I didn’t like, and what I hope regarding the future of The Hollis Timewire series.
SYNOPSIS
Life is easy in 2647, unless you’re a Diseased One…
On the morning of her 16th birthday, Hollis Timewire receives the worst possible news. She can’t become a citizen of the world. She’s a Diseased One.
Born with a biomarker that bestows dangerous, brain-altering powers, Hollis is forced to hide underground with other Diseased Ones, who believe that the government falsified history to cover up their genocide.
Now Hollis must discover the truth, and is willing to risk anything, including her powers, to go back home.
Spoilers for The Diseased Ones by Danielle Harrington
WORLD-BUILDING
The world-building of The Diseased Ones is well fleshed out, for the first book in a series. The way that it reminds me of both The Hunger Games and The Divergent Series (both series I’ve read countless times) is truly an amazing touch for readers who read either series. The idea of creating a biomarker, something that the people of this world already know about but fear, is an amazing way to show the manipulation of the government and the propaganda surrounding Diseased Ones as being “dangerous,” “uncontrollable.”
The way in which Danielle weaves in known tropes of this type of genre is amazing and in a very unique way, because it allows for us to journey into this world that has such a rich history that is just waiting to be explored (something that I didn’t see much of in either The Hunger Games or the Divergent series.)
Also, the introduction of The Diseased Ones into the first chapter of the story is, in my opinion, a nice way to immediately get us right into the “meat” of the story. The idea that The Diseased Ones, as they are called in this world, were wiped out in a genocide but only a few Diseased Ones actually remember the event shows just why I love this novel. It’s attention to detail and making sure everything fits into this story while setting up storylines and arcs for the rest of the series.
CHARACTERS
The characters in this story are well-written, especially Hollis Timewire herself. For me, one of the hardest thing about reading stories like this, is the fact that the main characters rarely ever suffer any personal loss. However, that’s different with Hollis. When we initially meet our protagonist, we see that she is going for her test to become a part of her society and in this world, emotions are weakness, which shows in her interactions with her family, the scientists and faculty of Area 19’s Testing Center and even when she initially meets the other Diseased Ones.
Thus, it’s when Hollis realizes that she is a Diseased One, she flees in fear and sees the fear that being a Diseased One instills into the hearts of its citizens, especially her parents. The fact that even her mother, whom should have been understanding, turns against her when she’s revealed to be a Diseased One is disheartening because as sons and daughters, we all want our parents to love us.
When Hollis later meets the other Diseased Ones like Jonah, Tiffany, Ashton and later many others, her emotions run wild due to the events of the day prior and never being able to see her family again without being hunted. So, it comes as no surprise that Hollis doesn’t want anything to do with them.
This actually transitions well into the characters of Jonah, Tiffany and Ashton; the three Diseased Ones that she meets when she wakes up. Jonah is immediately likeable to me because he doesn’t try to push Hollis with the fact that she’s like them but is patient enough to wait for her to come to the realization on her own and later, patient with her in training her destructive abilities. Ashton, in contrast, is someone that I wanted to hate because he was so rude to Hollis but through the story, I began to understand why there was animosity between them.
Lastly, Tiffany, she’s the one that bridges Jonah and Ashton quite well and I can’t wait to see what Danielle has in store for her character. Tiffany, although patient with Hollis about the revelation that she’s a Diseased Ones, is also just waiting for her to hurry up and accept that she can no longer meet her family. We even get to see some insecurities within each of the three Diseased Ones and that is something I thoroughly enjoy.
THEMES
One of the themes that I saw within this novel was the theme of control, whether that be with the government and their cover-up of the genocide of the Diseased Ones or Hollis and those like her learning to control their “destructive” abilities. Another theme that I noticed within the story is the theme of “us vs them” in the way that Hollis comes from the society that believed that the Diseased Ones orchestrated the attack that led to their genocide and later, realizing that she is now apart of the “them.”
OVERALL
The Diseased Ones by Danielle Harrington is an amazing book and I can’t wait to see the later books in the series. The way that Danielle weaves in the themes, world-building and characters in such a unique way is truly amazing. Once again, thank you Danielle for letting me be apart of your blog tour and the release of your novel.
Rating: 4.5/5
The Wandering Scribe 